Kurti: Kosovo lost over €40 million in EU funds due to the Assembly deadlock

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has declared that the country has lost the opportunity to benefit from over €40 million from the European Union, as a result of laws not being approved in the Assembly.

Kurti made the remarks on Friday, during the Second Meeting of the Ministerial Council for European Integration, in its function as the Steering Committee for the Growth Plan, where implementation of reforms, existing projects and IPA programs were discussed.

The Prime Minister announced that on July 15, the Government had submitted to the European Commission the first official report on the implementation of the Reform Agenda and the first request for the release of Growth Plan funds.

“By June 30 we implemented and reported to the EC 20 reform steps, worth a total of €153.3 million in European Union funds. Currently, the EC is conducting the assessment. After the assessment, the Commission will approve the decision to release the funds and then Kosovo will benefit from the respective funds under this decision,” Kurti said.

He announced that at the beginning of next week three international agreements for IPA programs will be sent to the Assembly. They include two amendments for the IPA 2021 and IPA 2022 projects, as well as the Financial Agreement IPA 2026–2027, through which Kosovo is expected to benefit €258 million.

According to Kurti, from the Growth Plan and IPA programs, Kosovo is expected to benefit over €400 million for good governance and the implementation of reforms toward European Union membership.

However, he said that of the 13 reforms foreseen for the June 30 deadline, six were not implemented in time. As a result, of the €90.7 million planned for this deadline, Kosovo did not benefit from over €40 million.

“The reason for not benefiting from these funds is the blockade in the Assembly, which made approving the laws impossible,” Kurti said.

He added that all draft laws foreseen for the June 30 deadline will be processed at the next Assembly session.

Kurti emphasized that attention must now focus on implementing the 22 reforms due by the end of December, worth €131.4 million in EU funds. According to him, eight of these reforms require approval of draft laws in the Assembly, and these are a total of 10 draft laws with a deadline of December 31, 2026.

“These draft laws are being finalized and we will approve them in the government within this deadline. In this regard we have also worked with the European Commission so that the draft laws, which have December 31 as the deadline, complete the consultation with the European Union faster. If the Assembly is functional, the reforms and the funds dedicated to them will not be lost,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that, because of the blockade in the Assembly, implementation of the foreseen reforms will not fail, but the funds dedicated to them will be lost.

During his speech, Kurti also spoke about the institutional situation and the deadline for electing the new president. He declared that, if the president is not elected by October 6, the country will go to new parliamentary elections.

“If we do not manage to elect a new president, we will go to elections again, which would be the fourth elections in less than two years,” Kurti said.

He described new elections as unnecessary and costly, emphasizing that Kosovo already has an elected Assembly and Government.

“We already have an Assembly speaker and we have an elected government and this Assembly can give the country a president. We must understand that in Kosovo we do not have presidential elections. New elections would be again for the Assembly and for the government and not for the president, since the election of the president is done by the Assembly,” he said.

Kurti called on political parties to contribute to making the Assembly functional, emphasizing that the responsibility for approving laws and the functioning of institutions is shared, as Telegrafi reports.